AYP standards are based on performance on the state accountability reading and math tests, known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, as well as test participation, graduation rates and attendance.

The entire student body is evaluated as well as several subgroups: African American, Hispanic, Anglo, economically disadvantaged, special education and limited-English-proficient students.

Missing the mark in any one subgroup means failure to make AYP.

The state missed AYP due to the performance of special education students and limited-English-proficient students in reading and of special education students in math.

Marchman said the state had yet to hear from the U.S. Education Department on whether it would face sanctions. Similarly, several local districts, including Northside and North East, were downgraded for missing some subgroup targets.

Only schools and districts receiving federal Title 1 money — typically those with a high percentage of low-income students — face sanctions, which get tougher each year.

San Antonio ISD's Sam Houston High is in its fourth year at Stage 5, the final rung on the ladder for campuses. Last year, Sam Houston actually made AYP, but schools must make AYP for two consecutive years before they're no longer subject to sanctions.

Schools in Stage 5 must implement a major restructuring plan, but SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price said performance at Sam Houston is improving and the school will continue with the plan already in place.

“There's not going to be a new plan,” she said.

This year, the federal government raised the standards in math and reading in preparation for the goal that all students pass their tests by 2014.

The state also eliminated the Texas Projection Measure, a controversial tool that allowed schools and districts to count some students as passing who actually had failed their tests, because they appeared on target to pass in the future. That change, in turn, affected the federal results.

In SAISD, where both the district and more than three dozen schools failed to make AYP, Price said test scores improved. “But it wasn't enough to meet where the increased standards are this year.”

Harlandale ISD sunk from stage 2 district sanctions to stage 3 this year.

The state has yet to notify districts about what stage 3 sanctions will entail because the TEA is tweaking them and the approval process for the changes has been held up in rounds of layoffs within the agency, Marchman said.

Kathy Bruck, Harlandale's executive director of curriculum and instruction, said the district failed to meet AYP targets because the number of special education students taking modified tests rose above a federal 3 percent cap. Additional students taking those alternative assessments may pass their exams yet be counted as “artificial failures” for district and campus AYP ratings, Bruck said.

Harlandale, which has a residential facility for about 50 severely disabled students, may implement specific interventions for them, but Bruck said the district isn't likely to steer students away from alternate tests.

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“We don't tell a school, ‘You can only have this many students taking this particular test,'” Bruck said. “We tell them, ‘Try to challenge them as much as you can, but make the right decision for the student.'”

North East ISD, the area's second-largest district, also missed AYP this year because of the performance by its special education population.

To prepare students to meet AYP next year, the district will provide more professional development and boost monitoring of student performance, said Janna Hawkins, North East's associate superintendent for instructional and technology services. Teachers will be able to view the historical performance of their students and reteach if necessary, she said.Just last week, when the state accountability ratings were released, no local districts were deemed academically unacceptable, but even many perennially high-performing districts fared poorly under the federal standards.

Thursday's results highlight the differences in the state and federal systems. For instance, the state system evaluates performance in more subject areas but the federal system requires that standards be met by more student subpopulations.

The Obama administration has been pushing to overhaul the federal system, which some local educators say is based on unreasonable goals.

In South San Antonio ISD, Kindred Elementary was recognized under state ratings but missed AYP for reading performance while Armstrong Elementary was only rated academically acceptable under state ratings but met AYP.

“There are conflicting standards, you've got a state standard and a federal standard and it's really hard to determine which standard you're going to live by,” TAKS facilitator/district testing coordinator Bill Renton said.

Though Northside ISD met the federal standards last year, the area's largest district missed AYP this year because of the math performance of its special education and limited English proficient students and reading performance of some limited English proficient students, said Superintendent John Folks.

“We don't pay a lot of attention to the AYP ratings because they're unrealistic. They're standards that, absolutely, the way they're set up, school districts cannot meet,” said Folks, adding that he was not surprised by Northside's results this year.

“When you have a system in which nobody can reach those standards, then it's not the school districts or the organizations (fault), it's the standards.”